


A Bridge Over Troubled Water Part 2

by livvels1012



Series: A Bridge Over Troubled Water [2]
Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, MomGwen, Warning for smoking, dadvid, light gwenvid - Freeform, maxvid shippers don't interact!, warning for child abuse mention, warning for terminal illness mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-01 21:21:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20264698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livvels1012/pseuds/livvels1012
Summary: Almost two weeks after the events of Part 1, Gwen falls back on an old bad habit to cope with her stress. When Max catches her in the act, it leads to a series of troubling consequences, including bringing up bad memories of the fate of David's mom and who knows what for Max. I strongly suggest reading the Part 1 one-shot before you read this, but y'all are free spirits. You can find it in my series, A Bridge Over Troubled Water.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to wait a week to post this, but I got my green belt today and I'm so happy! Long story short, I went back to taekwondo for the first time in eight years. My teacher was like a second dad to me, still is. He started me right where I left off so I had to learn like four belts for the test in a single month AND I PASSED. One step closer to black belt, then teacher!
> 
> Side note, I made a tumblr connected to this blog. It will have announcements for when new work is posted, and I will take questions/comments about the fics/the author there as well. It's livvels1012.tumblr.com. Hope you guys enjoy chapter 1!

He was sweet and creative.    
  
He was kind and uplifting.   
  
He was patient and strong.   
  
_ He was driving her up the fucking wall! _

  
  
David was always an early riser, but lately he was up at the crack of dawn researching on her computer trying his best to find a hit on Max’s parents via her strategy. And on top of that, he was up all night either fretting or doing the same thing. Additionally, it was an absolute fucking nightmare to get Max to take his antibiotic. She was talking kicking, punching, screaming, violent descriptions of their murder and obscenities on  _ multiple  _ occasions, and David always went running to her with a bleeding heart _ . “He’s just so upset, Gwen!” _

Max insisted he was perfectly recovered and complained they were too big and he’d choke to death before he died of tetanus. So then David proceeded to cut them up, even crush them into juice which got chucked across the room the first two times around. It was a collective effort between the two of them, going on for almost two weeks now.

  
  
That said, he was doing great. No fever, his pain was gone and he’d had no flare ups except maybe a lack of appetite but that was a side effect of the medication. But combined with the little shit being back to his regular self and David being up all hours and radiating anxiety thinly veiled with his steadfast cheer, Gwen needed a break.

  
  
“I’m gonna check on the campers. Or for bears. Or whatever.” she said, putting her book down as she slyly slid her hand between the board and mattress of her bed, finding what she was looking for and slipping them into her pocket. She glanced over at David, who was engrossed in the profiles she had collected so far that could be one of Max’s parents. He barely hummed at her in reply.

  
  
That stung a little. It wasn’t like him to not acknowledge her. 

  
  
As she slammed the screen door behind her, she heard him yelp and his tea mug clatter and felt a  _ little  _ bad, but not really. He needed to take a hint to stop obsessing; when Max was read,y they would talk to him and there was nothing he could do but take shit one day at a time before then. Gwen stomped around to the back of the cabin and glanced at him through the window, watching him try to wipe tea off of his shirt front and his lips moving as he said something aloud to himself. 

  
  
She rested her hand over her pocket, as she backed up and turned to approach the tree line, ducking behind one of the fragrant evergreens where he wouldn’t be able to see her indulge bad habit. Gwen had been good about breaking it over the course of the last year but sometimes her anxiety just got the better of her and she needed a goddamn fix. “These boys are gonna put me in my grave,” she muttered, putting the cigarette between her teeth as she sparked the lighter and cupped it to the end. 

  
  
_ Oh, sweet irresponsibility, I missed you so _ , she thought as she took a long drag and slowly let it out. Gwen pressed the hand holding it to her forehead and leaned her back against the tree, as she tried to think of any way to improve the situation. She could call her parents, maybe. Ask them what they thought. They were  _ clingy  _ and would lose their minds if she actually physically talked to them on the phone, but they would possibly have some decent advice. She had been a hellion herself growing up and she didn’t end up  _ hating  _ them. Then again, nobody compared to Max. He was probably born with a tiny bit of chaos as a base element to his construct. 

  
  
Gwen surfaced from her thoughts and jerked her head up, hearing the snap and rustle of flora underfoot. Her first thought was an actual bear, but David had told her so many times that the predators native to the area wouldn’t come near the Camp. Too much noise and activity. They would be scared off once they were within a mile of it. Still, the image of a cougar’s eyes glinting at her in the dark before it pounced on her throat with silent lethality sent chills down her spine. Only the aesthetic parts of nature had grown on her. The rest...she left to her co-counselor. 

  
  
But he  _ did  _ know what he was talking about, so it had to be a person. “If it’s one of you gremlins, come out here now and then get the hell back into bed!” She called out in the darkness as loud as she dared. The only light she had was the dark orange ember of her cigarette, illuminating an orb around her hand and making the shadows seem all the more dense outside of it. 

  
  
There they were. Glinting eyes in the dark, almost luminescent. Except...they weren’t yellow. They were an electric turquoise green, the pupils like embers as they reflected the only light source between them. The sticks crunched softly again, damper under foot, as a familiar little form ventured out. No blue hoodie. He was wearing his sweatpants and rumpled yellow camp shirt. Oddly enough, he seemed littler without his well-loved layer. 

  
  
“Dude. It’s, like...eleven at night. What are you doing?” she asked. Even he was usually out by this time of night, or at least he stayed in his tent. 

  
  
Max was just staring her down, his brow furrowed as he glanced between her face and her hand. He was fidgeting his own hands together, idly picking at the corners of his fingertips and cuticles. “What the hell are  _ you  _ doing?” he shot back, his voice dripping with venom but hushed. 

  
  
Gwen looked at the cigarette in her hand, then pointed to it. “Seriously? This is what you get judgey over?” 

  
  
She took a step towards him, but Max’s eyes widened, the whites bright in the dark and he took an equal step back to maintain the distance. “Hey, if you want to get fucking cancer, go ahead but keep it to yourself!” he hissed, pointing a threatening finger at him. But Gwen could almost swear she saw a little tremor in it. 

  
  
Somehow, she didn’t think his issue was with getting sick. 

  
  
They stood in silence, Max lingering for whatever reason and Gwen awkwardly tapping ash onto the ground. Finally, she made a decision to do her job.  _ Right, that’s a thing I have _ . “You gotta go back to your tent, Max, it’s way past curfew.”   
  


  
“I will in a bit.”    
  


  
“Why not now?”   
  


  
“Neil snores like a geriatric moose, it was either take a walk or smother him in his sleep.”   
  


  
“Lie better. You’re just insulting us both.” 

  
  
Max crossed his arms tightly, hunching over as he leaned his shoulder against his own tree and kept his head slightly bent down. “It feels too small.” he eventually murmured, turning his back on her to face the seemingly endless expanse of trees beyond them. The layers of shadows, made of swaying branches and spaces between spaces, seeming to draw in anyone who looked at them too long. And all the space someone could want. 

  
  
Right then, Gwen remembered how she had found him during her first visit to him in the hospital. 

  
  
She had never told Max or David how she had seen the kid. It felt so utterly private and despite how it created a sinking cold feeling in her abdomen that was back full force, she just  _ knew  _ it would crush Max’s trust in her if she had told her friend.

  
  
She never told David how he found Max’s fingers clawing at the blanket, swaying his head back and forth erratically, tears leaking down his temples as he hazily murmured alarming words. Asking for  _ mommy _ . A lot of kids his age used the terms mommy and daddy, it was perfectly normal but it sounded so foreign from Max. 

  
  
But that wasn’t what she fixated on. 

  
  
She remembered him whispering _ let me out, let me out, _ over and over again in between garbled nightmare words. And her brain was already running wild with all the terrible things that could represent. It took everything not to spiral into assumptions. She hoped it was just an off-shoot nightmare driven by his fever, but now she knew it was just wishful thinking. 

  
  
Gwen lowered her hands to her sides and meandered up to Max, moving slow and quiet to avoid aggravating him. He didn’t move, but shivered a little as the wind picked up. It carried a chill up from the cooler, mistier region of the forest below where the forest dropped into an incline along the mountain side. She lowered herself down to her knees at his height and touched his shoulder, raising her other hand to avoid catching the still lit stick on any leaves or something. “If you want to stay at our cabin--” she began, but she never got to finish it.

  
  
Max whipped around so hard, she swore he could’ve given himself whiplash. She saw it clearly in slow motion. He didn’t look at her face or her hand on his shoulder. He just looked at the glowing ember and then shoved her arm away as he violently threw himself back from her, “ _ GET THAT AWAY FROM ME! _ ” before he fell right on his butt in the dirt.    
  


  
“Max! Holy shit, calm down!” She’d  _ never  _ heard him scream out like that.    
  


  
He scrambled backwards the last three feet or so before his back smacked against another tree and he didn’t have any further to go. Gwen’s hand still hovered where he once was, too shocked at his visceral reaction to lower it. 

He seemed to realize what he’d done and he got to his feet, mud and leaves sticking to his pants, his elbows smeared with it. The fear on his face was steadily giving way for unadulterated humiliation. “Don’t fucking look at me.” 

  
  
She couldn’t  _ not _ , at least not until she heard a screen door creak open and snap shut about fifty feet off.  _ Shit. David must have heard him _ . Gwen stood up and lowered her hand, trying to hide the light as she whispered low, “You can’t keep this shit up, Max, there is definitely  _ something  _ going on with you. You remember what he told you; you don’t  _ need  _ to pretend.”   
  
  
Max looked behind her, the approaching sound of someone’s feet in the grass growing louder. “I’ll go back to my tent. I’ll  _ stay  _ there, just don’t tell him. Gwen, I’m serious!”   
  


  
“If you don’t feel safe at home, you can tell us. We can help.” It felt futile to try to get through to Max, but she had to try. She had no doubt in her mind now. “It’s our jobs, Max, and we  _ want  _ to help you.”   
  


  
“I don’t want your help--” he began, before he stuttered and corrected his wording. “I-I mean, I don’t  _ need  _ it. If you tell David, he’ll overreact and do something stupid and just make things worse.”   
  


  
“Make  _ what  _ worse, Max?”    
  


  
She saw him falter, knowing he’d been caught. At what, it wasn’t clear. And when he decided he was done talking and tried to bolt past her, she instinctively grabbed for him. And she successfully got him by the shoulders and she pulled him close, trying her best to be gentle as she kept him from fleeing. Max kept thrashing and throwing elbow strikes in her direction, but she was used to it. “Look, I understand, you’re used to not asking for help because you couldn’t get it before, right? And now you’d rather pretend you don’t need it at all because it’s what you’re used to? _ Right?!” _   


  
He slowly grew still, hunched over, not answering her. Keeping his head down. But she felt he was listening. “But that’s  _ not  _ how it is anymore. If your parents or anyone are hurting you, Max, we can stop them from taking you back but only if you talk to us. If you don’t talk to me, there is pretty much nothing we can do. Whatever you’re afraid of…” Like cigarettes.    


  
_ Wait _ .

  
** _Fuck_ ** .   


  
She looked down, not seeing the light source but the glow from it, which her eyes followed. She only saw the small flames starting for a minute before she released Max and immediately turned to deal with it. What did she do? Throw dirt over it? David must have told her a hundred times--   


  
The light suddenly went out. Gwen was a little confused at first, before she realized someone had just simply stomped a boot down on it. She followed it up the leg and torso to find the face of said person looking at her with alarmed moss-green eyes, before he stooped down and looked under his foot to double check it was out. Her stomach flip flopped as he plucked up the flattened cigarette. She barely felt Max’s shoulder knock her in the arm as he made a break for it, past the two of them and in the direction of his tents as fast as he could go.    


  
She couldn’t see David’s face with the light of their cabin windows behind him, only the halo-like outline of his shoulders. He watched Max go over his shoulder. “...Is he okay?” he asked quietly.   
  


  
_ Shit.  _ “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. No, not honestly. He so obviously wasn’t and she’d blown it helping him. “He isn’t hurt.”

  
“Is this yours?”   
  


  
_ Shitshitshitshitshit.  _ She just looked at him dumbly, trying to find anything acceptable to say.   
  


__   
“Is it yours?!”   
  


  
Gwen flinched. She’d heard David raise his voice so many times, but almost  _ never  _ to her and  _ never  _ like that. The sheer betrayal and disappointment in it cut through her as cold as ice. She found herself nodding of her own volition. “David, I am so--” she began.    


  
Her apology died on her lips before it lived. He had already crunched the cigarette up in a tight, trembling fist and turned his back on her. She couldn’t bring herself to stop him from walking away, but she doubted she could if she tried.   


  
Both her boys left her alone in the darkness, the yawning wood continuing to silently grasp at her feet, whispering sweetly for her to venture deeper into it.    


  
By the time she did actually tear herself away, she wandered the whole camp, checking on the kids. Normally David’s routine, but now she was paranoid most of them would be out of bed having a thing too. She even stopped to peak in Max’s and Neil’s, and found relief that Max appeared to be in bed with his back turned, curled up in a fetal position under David’s (or was it Max’s now?) family quilt. He likely wasn’t asleep, but at least he was where he was supposed to be.    


* * *

  
When she did get back to the counselors cabin, David was sitting on the edge of his bed, his elbows on his knees as he bent over, itching at the old tiny scars along his knuckles. He only ever did that when he was  _ truly  _ upset.    
  
Gwen hesitated at the door, but when he glanced up at her, she couldn’t tear herself away. Neither of them would sleep, and they had to sleep in the same cabin, so she shuffled over to his bed and sat down beside him. The space felt like a chasm, even though it was less than four feet.    
  


  
“You’re supposed to be smart. You  _ are  _ smart,” he said softly. “How could you be smoking? And in the  _ woods _ , of all places? I didn’t even know you smoked!”   
  


  
_ Please, David, not the disappointed voice. You’re killing me. _

  
  
“I quit a while ago, it’s just sometimes I have one when I’m really stressed or my medication isn’t...working as well. Maybe once a month, not even every month.” she tried to explain away how bad it was, despite it being really bad. “I started when I was a freshman and it was stupid then and it’s stupid now.”   


  
“You could have burnt the camp down.”   
  


  
She winced. There was no denying that. “Yeah, I know, but listen, Max was--”   
  


  
“You could get sick!”

  
Gwen went utterly silent and looked at him. After he finished yelling, he let out a tiny gasp, like he was horrified with himself. David raised one shaking hand to press it hard against his mouth, sucking in a deep breath through the nose but his eyes were shining.   


  
Gwen slowly reached over, laying her arm around his shoulders, feeling them quake as he choked down his emotions. She hated it when he did that. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t even thinking about your mom,” she murmured. “But this isn’t like her. You told me she never touched a cigarette.”   


  
He lowered his hand, shooting her a sideways look. “Does it matter if it’s genetic or not? You still die early on because you can’t catch your breath anymore. Cystic fibrosis doesn’t care how you got it, it’s all the same because it  _ kills  _ you the same. Gwen, I--I don’t have a  _ family  _ anymore. I can’t even go home to my own house without feeling like it’s suffocating me. All I have is this place, and these kids and  _ you _ .”   


  
Her heart jumped a little. She couldn’t be  _ that  _ important to him…?   


  
David was frantically wiping his hands over his cheeks and rubbing his eyes, like he could force the tears to stop if he just didn’t acknowledge they were falling. “You’re my  _ best  _ friend,” he whispered. “Everybody that’s left me-- you can’t become part of them.”   


  
When she had first met David, her impression of him had been much the same as everyone else’s. Insufferably peppy, annoying as hell, likely on drugs or just inhuman. She had focused on the surface for so long, but over time, living in close quarters with him? She began to see the layers.    


  
And there were so many.   


  
He was a man who genuinely wanted to help everyone he met, and believe in the good things in the world. To keep seeing them through all the smog and selfishness, a man who decided to rebel by being kind and good instead of cynical and uncooperative. And no matter how many times the world tried to beat down his philosophy, he stayed strong and got back up again each time. There was nothing fake about that. And at first, she thought it was mind boggling but then it began to be  _ inspiring _ . She didn’t want to be part of the cynics anymore.    


  
And then, she saw the rest of the layers.   


  
He helped everyone and anyone, often at the cost of his own self. He bottled things up and a smile was a band aid for everything. He had lost his parents, his childhood best friend, been lied to and manipulated and cheated out of so much. He carried an unimaginable pain of loss and loneliness that she couldn’t fathom the  _ strength  _ it took to lug it around and be who he was while doing so.    


  
So when there was the slightest chance that he might lose someone  _ again _ , he broke down and then he  _ resented  _ himself for doing it.    


  
Gwen wriggled her shoes off and gave his back just a slight pat. “It’s two in the morning. You have to go to sleep,” she told him and he grumbled, burying his face in his hands. She would tell him about Max later. She was reeling from seeing him this low; maybe there was more going on, and she had just been the mouse that tipped the boat. But bottom line, David needed his best friend and she was going to make a _ fucking effort _ .   
  
  
“Lay down.” she told him.   
  


  
“Gwen, I’m really--  _ mmph!” _   
  


  
She put her hand on his face and shoved him sideways, then grabbed his legs and began wrestling them onto the bed to get him laying down when he tried to get back up. “Gwen, get off of me! You’re being childish!”   


  
“You’re the one throwing a tantrum about going to bed!” she retorted. Over a month of wrangling Nikki and assorted gremlins, she could tuck a grown man into bed. He gave up at one point to pout, as she turned off the light and after a heartbeat, laid down next to him. His disgruntled mumbling stopped shortly after.   


  
Gwen gave him two sharp pokes in the back, “David, I am right here. And I’m  _ going  _ to be here. Until you fall asleep, until you wake up and for a long ass fucking time after. I’m not leaving you, okay?”   


  
When he didn’t speak for a while, she panicked. Was this too far? Too much effort?   


  
She heard shuffling and felt the bed shift as he turned over in the dark, then felt his arm draped around her and drawing her close as he buried his face against her shoulder. “I want you to throw the rest of them away. I know you have more.”   
  


  
“That’s fair. You can help me do it tomorrow morning. Go to sleep,  **now** .”   


  
He le t her go and they both rolled over, but their backs stayed warmly pressed together. She unconsciously synced her breathing with his and this was...actually kind of nice. It was as comforting for her as it seemed to be for him. She thought it would be a restless night thinking about how she almost started a forest fire in the most obvious way possible, about what had happened with Max and how badly her actions had affected David who was at his limit already. Well, she did think about those things. But only for so long until she was lulled to sleep by the presence of her friend.   



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished this right after my 5 am shift and then passed out immediately. Proof read it two times. Pray my mushy brain did it well. Thanks so much for the feed back, guys, it really makes me so happy and does wonders for motivation. Validation, who knew. Enjoy! Also, I do have a series planned but if anyone has one-shot or other ideas they would like to see, you're free to pitch them in my ask box on my tumblr livvels1012. If I don't answer within two days, it's likely your ask was lost, so feel free to ask me if I got it or send it again! I will not mind at all, I prefer people double check than worry and say nothing. If I take your idea, you will be credited, unless you prefer to stay anonymous. I also don't mind getting messages about typos or any format problems so I can fix them. Love you guys! xoxo

Despite the lack of sleep, David habitually jerked awake just after five a.m, give or take a few minutes. He could see the hazy rays of sunlight filtering through the window over his desk, illuminating his unfinished work. His body begged to sleep a little longer, but he dragged himself upright by sheer willpower. He vigorously ruffled his fingers through his bed head to loosen where it was flattened down and rubbed his eyes, giving a glance down at his side where Gwen quietly breathed. Her hair had come almost completely loose from her ponytail, was fluffed out wildly, one arm twisted up behind her head and her cheek squished against it. 

  
  
He gingerly moved his legs over the side of the bed and laid the blanket back over her, deciding to let her sleep in. She was clearly sorry over what happened and in retrospect, he could have handled it better than storming off and crying about it. That wasn’t himself. Gwen was far from a bad friend or person, and he knew she never  _ meant _ to upset him. If she was regressing to such an awful habit, she had to be stressed. And he didn’t want to make it worse on her. The least he could do was give her a little extra time before she had to get back to the grindstone.

  
  
David knew there was more to what happened last night, but he wasn’t going to talk to Gwen about it for a little bit. Better to let the tension die down first. So, he took a brisk shower, threw on some clean clothes and set off to do his usual morning errands whilst tying his bandana around his neck. He raised the flag and wandered the camp full circle until he reached the Mess Hall. By then, he was finally hungry and usually grabbed something small to wait for Gwen to wake up and join him.

  
  
But as he entered in through the doors, the dim gray morning light not quite illuminating the gloom yet, there was already someone sitting at a table. He didn’t need bright light to see the trademark moppy unruly hair and slouched posture over a cup of coffee he was not supposed to have. He would’ve swapped the store for decaf if he thought he could pull a fast one on Max and Gwen.  _ One can dream. _

__   
  
“Hey, kiddo. Rising with the sun today?” he asked, keeping his voice hushed. It always felt wrong to speak too loudly when the morning larks were just starting up. When Max replied with a lame shrug, he decided to snag two apples from the commissary and plunked down beside him. “Had breakfast?”

  
  
“Not hungry…” 

  
  
“The anti-biotics can do that. But you gotta eat if you want to--”

  
  
“I swear to fucking god, if you say ‘grow up big and strong’, I’m gonna throw myself into the lake.”

  
  
David did not say grow up big and strong, but he did dare to slide the coffee mug away and replace it with actual food. Max didn’t respond violently, but David definitely noticed how he shrank back when his hand brushed the camper’s arm. “Does your skin still hurt?” David asked worriedly, thinking back to the tetanus. All of his symptoms had to be gone, or it was straight back to the doctor to see about a second round of treatment and he wasn't sure Max was up to it. The poor kid was miserable enough already.

  
  
“ _ No _ , I just don’t want to be fucking touched. It’s not new information.”

  
  
Max leaned forward on the table as far as he could, half of his face covered by the sleeves of his hoodie as he glared at his barely-breakfast like it had personally offended him. The kid always had slight circles under his eyes, but they looked more pronounced than ever and since seeing him up so late and now up so early, that account for four hours of sleep tops in one night. Was that what he was running on? Less than half of what he was supposed to get?

  
  
A grown up could get eight hours and be fine. A child his age needed upwards of ten, even eleven to be healthy. 

  
  
“Did you get in a fight with Gwen last night? You looked pretty upset when you ran off,” David prompted him patiently, leaning forward on the table himself. Not slouching with his chin on it, just his elbows but he wanted to try to engage Max at his level. 

  
  
“She was just giving me shit for being out of bed, that’s all.”

  
  
He didn’t want to outright say  _ I know you’re hiding more _ , not unless he wanted Max to click into another defensive mindset and once he did, there was almost nothing to get him out of it. “Max, I came running because I heard you scream. You sounded  _ scared _ . I thought maybe there was an animal or something in the camp.” And that was true, at least at the time.

  
  
Max was picking at the wood on the table with his nails, prying up tiny splinters and fidgeting with the divots in its surface. “Do you ever have nightmares?” he asked quietly after a long time.   
  
_ Nightmares? _ David was taken aback by the sudden question. It didn’t seem like a trap of some kind, just a straight up inquiry. “Sometimes…”

  
  
“What do you do? Like, to deal with them?”

  
  
David let out a long sigh, not sure he could go through this with him again. He didn’t even tell  _ Gwen  _ about them. When he had bad dreams, he seemed to just freeze up until they were over and then he tried to just get on with his life. But Max needed real guidance. “I remind myself they aren’t real, and can’t hurt me until I feel calm enough to go back to sleep.”

  
  
“And if that doesn’t work?”

  
  
“Max, are you having bad dreams?” He wasn’t going to beat around the bush, and he wasn’t going to let Max do the same. He wanted the kid to start being direct as he felt he could be. He watched Max sit up, but take the front of his hoodie and tug the neck up around his face in a turtle like fashion. _ He’s nervous _ . “If you are, you can always wake me up.”

“You’d ask me a shit ton of questions.”

  
  
“Maybe, but you wouldn’t have to answer. Do you have bad dreams at home? Do you tell your parents?”

  
  
And there went the hood, up over his head. “You know they don’t give a shit.”

  
  
“What about your mom? You asked for her at the hospital.”

  
  
Max shook his head and faltered on his answer. “I don’t-- I don’t remember that. That doesn’t sound like me.”

  
  
“It’s okay if you miss your mom. Lots of kids miss their mom at camp.” 

  
  
“I never said I missed her! And if I did, what would the fucking point be? I can’t call her or anything! She’s the one who put me on the fucking bus to this hellhole in the first place!”

  
  
“Maybe she just thought it would be good for you, and hasn’t it been? Just a little bit?” David argued, hoping it was true. Why would Max call out for her, _specifically_ _her_, when he was sick and hurting and wanted someone to help him? There had to be  _ some  _ good in their relationship. “What about your dad?”

  
  
“He-- he acts like I don’t exist. And he’s never even around.”

  
  
_ Ow. That sounded familiar _ . He heard that wounded stutter in Max’s voice and he wanted to reach out and hug him, but he could tell at the moment, it wouldn’t have the positive effect he wanted. But that did answer the mystery a little. Maybe Max just asked for her because she was the only option he had. So, he just reached over and very delicately pulled Max’s hood back down. _ Golly, this boy needs to brush his hair _ . “If you have another nightmare, I don’t want you wandering in the dark alone, it isn’t safe. But a walk outside  _ can _ help you feel better, so next time, just come knocking on our cabin. I’ll walk with you, okay?”

  
  
Max slowly met his eyes and when he finally did, David smiled at him. “You won’t get pissed and kick me out?” the boy asked. 

  
  
David was very concerned that Max would even think that, but his camper was accepting the offer and he wasn’t going to push him or risk causing him to withdraw again. “Never. I’m going to make you some eggs and get your medicine, but you eat that apple.”

  
  
Max didn’t answer, but as David headed to the kitchen to rummage up some simple hot food, he did hear the crunch of him biting into the fruit. While the eggs cooked, he made sure to crush up the antibiotic and stir it well into some juice. It was the magical solution to get Max to take it.

  
  
And to his delight, Max had an empty plate not long after his counselor set it down in front of him. “That was the last one,” he told him, as he picked up Max’s dirty dishes. “You’re all done, good job!”

  
  
He assumed Max’s flat grunt meant ‘thank you’. David glanced at his watch; it was getting close to seven, and he figured Gwen would be up any time. “Activities start in an hour, the only thing to do until then is chores. Want to help?”

  
  
“Why would you even ask me that?” Max growled, but he followed David out of the mess hall.    
  


* * *

Max idly picked at an old scar behind his neck, just below the top of his spine. It was no stroke of luck it was low enough to be hidden by any regular shirt collar, but his hoodie added extra security against it. David hummed merrily as he made his way to whatever menial task he had in store and Max dragged his feet while he followed. He didn’t want to help David; that implied the state of the camp mattered to him. It did not.

  
  
But he really didn’t want to be alone for a while, and for reasons he would not deign to give formed thought, he’d rather be with David than anyone else on this particular day. He finally shoved his hands into his pocket and quickened his step to catch up with him. “Where are we going?”

  
  
“To the water pump. Once a month, I have to test it.”

  
  
“Like an old-timey one with a crank?”

  
  
“Yep! It’s really only used in the off season when the plumbing is turned off, or as a last resort.”

  
  
“Bet you five bucks it has lead in it.”

  
  
The pump was way out to the eastern side of the camp, opposite the tents and Max plunked down on a tree stump to watch David get it working. It was kind of neat, to be honest. David put some of the water in a test tube with some kind of paper strip in it, gave it a shake and then took a seat on the grass next to Max. “And now we wait.”

  
  
Max idly swung his feet, kicking the stump with his heels each time and watched the horizon of the lake up ahead, the cinder-corpse of Spooky Island in the center. For a minute, he wondered if that... _ affected _ Jasper. Weren’t his remains there? What if they’d been destroyed? Did that have anything to do with it?

  
  
_ Last thing you need is to try to break down the logic of ghosts _ . 

  
  
He looked sideways at David, who was picking through the blades of grass next to where he had set the vial down. He still had never told him about Jasper. At the time, he had been convinced it would crush David and now with Campbell actually maybe turning the corner, he felt even less inclined towards the truth. There was no telling what David would do if he found out Campbell lied about Jasper being picked up by his parents. And what about said parents? Did they still hope their son was alive somewhere? Were they just waiting for him to come home any day? 

  
  
Max was ripped out of his contemplation by the most god awful fucking high pitched noise he had ever heard. He snapped around to see David with his hands cupped together, a long blade of grass between them, apparently...blowing through it somehow?

  
  
He immediately reached out and  _ slapped  _ David’s hands as hard as he could. “Are you trying to put me back in the hospital?! God, my fucking ears are bleeding!” 

  
  
His counselor laughed it off, and picked another blade of grass, holding it out to him. “Want to try?”

  
  
Max glared at it, before he snatched it from David’s fingers.  _ I’ll make you regret this. This is a power you should never have granted me, camp man _ . 

  
  
Admittedly, it was actually kind of fun to learn it. David called it a grass whistle, and Max was already thinking of waking Neil up with it in a little while, just for the look on his face. As Max took the grass blade away from his lips, he twirled it between his fingers and noticed in the distance out of his peripheral, Gwen was heading into the Mess Hall. He swallowed nervously and slid off the stump to sit on the grass in the shade. It was getting hot now that the sun had been up for a bit. “Did you know Gwen smokes?”   
  


“Not anymore, she doesn’t.”

  
  
“...You realize how incredibly fucking sinister that sounded, right?”

  
  
David adjusted his bandanna nervously, as he cast a sad, puppy-eyed look over at the cabin just as Gwen disappeared through the door inside. “All I meant is that we talked, and she’s quitting for good.”

  
  
“Did you  _ talk  _ or  _ fight? _ ”

“I could ask you the very same thing, you know.”

  
  
“ _ Nothinghappened. _ ”

  
  
Max cringed. He knew how quickly and desperately he had said it. What was wrong with him lately? It used to be so easy to let everything slide off his back, water off a duck--  _ oh my god, I’m using David sayings! I must be going crazy _ . Max dragged his hands down his face and peeked through his fingers to find what he expected. A very surprised, very concerned David looking at him with annoyingly big worried eyes. “I just got pissed, okay? I called her out for smoking in the forest. Could’ve killed us all with her cancer stick.”

  
  
He unconsciously reached behind his neck to scratch at the scar again, picking at the uneven surface of the skin. David moved to sit with him in the shade, side by side. Max was just digging the edge of his nails into it, angry with himself for letting Gwen get the better of him. Now she was suspicious and it was going to be even harder to keep this charade up. He could still hear his mother’s words.  _ “Just follow the rules and it will all be okay.  _ ** _I promise_ ** _ .” _

__   
  
_Third rule. Don't ever tell anyone what Mommy and Father say or do at home. _

  
  
“Max?” He didn’t see David move closer, or reach an arm around him. This time, he didn’t want to smack it away but he sensed David was keeping it light just in case he wanted to. “You can talk to me about anything, buddy. I really mean it.”

  
_   
_ _ No, I can’t!  _

__   
_   
_ The worst part was Max realized he  _ wanted _ to. He’d had a taste of what it was like away from his parents, with the freedom to go where he wanted, say what he wanted, to be around people with all the open space he could ever want. He had  __ friends for the first time. He wanted to tell David everything, to feed that feeble hope that he thought had been dead and gone so long ago. But he couldn’t. Max pulled his knees up to his chest and dropped his head down on them, silent as a grave, unable to come up with any response. 

  
  
“...Okay, Max. Whatever you need.” David’s hand rubbed up and down his arm soothingly, squeezed him a little closer against his side. 

  
  
David didn’t budge until Max leaned away and he immediately let him go, but that was almost a full five minutes later. New record. His counselor stood and helped him up, taking a minute to brush leaves off the back of his shirt. “I’m okay,” Max said quietly. “I’m just tired. I’m...I sleep like shit. I think it’s just the medication.”

  
  
He wasn’t sure if David bought it, but as the boy stepped back from him, his counselor gestured to the tents. “You’re excused from the first half of activities if you want to take a nap. It’ll be good for you.”

  
  
That actually sounded really tempting, but Max shook his head no. “Neil and Nikki would notice…I don’t want them to think there’s something wrong with me. I just want shit to be normal again.”

  
  
“Hey,” David leaned down and gave him a very light poke in the nose. Max swatted at his hand a few times until it was withdrawn. “What’d we agree on? No. Pretending. Say it back to me.”

  
  
“No pretending…”

  
  
“Good. It’s your choice, Max, do what’s best for you.” David encouraged him, as he packed up the water testing kit and looked at the tube. “There we go. Blue means it’s good. Green means treat it, yellow or pink or red means it isn’t usable.” 

Max twisted and twisted his grass whistle, keeping his gaze low to the ground. “Are there any other chores?”

“A few. Cleaning out the fire pits, cutting more wood, checking the boats are sea worthy, raising the flag...”

“Can I help? And then go lay down after?” He wasn’t sure why he felt inclined to ask David’s permission. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation, or maybe he just wanted the direction. “By help, I just mean lurk around giving scathing comments and watching judgmentally.”

“I'd love your supervision, Max. Come on, we’ll start with the boats.” 

  
  


The chores actually weren’t that hard. David showed him how to spot breaches in the boat hulls or warps in the wood, and taught him how to properly tie them off at the dock. Learning knots and other survival stuff got his mind off of his troubles. David showed him how to pull old ashes and cinders from the pits but also how much to leave to create a bank to shelter the coals to keep a new fire going longer. “ _ In an emergency, you can use them to keep an ember alive for hours if you don’t have anything to light a fire with. _ ”

He even let Max help chop some wood, but David’s woodcutter ax was way too big for him, so he got a little hatchet instead. “Uh, how many various sharp weapons do you have?” He asked, tapping the little log on the stump to try and split it through. He kept getting stuck half way.

“Just my survival knife. And multi tool, if you count that. Here, bring it all the way up and then down as hard as you can— you got it! Always swing from the top of your arc.”

Once they had enough, David helped Max carry it all to the wood pile and showed him to stack it bark side up in case it rained. By then, Max’s arms were a little shaky. He felt better; productive. But he was ready to go fall face first into his bed for a little while. 

He could hear other campers starting to get up and milk around for the start of the day, and he didn’t want to be seen toted around by David like a puppy. But he did have fun. Being taught one on one about survival stuff and actual useful things had actually caught his interest.  _ Not _ camping. Survivalism was different, more had ass. “David?”

“Yep?” His counselor was just putting their equipment away in the maintenance shed. 

“Can I help out tomorrow morning, too?”

He could tell David was surprised when he slowly turned around with his stupid face lighting up. “If you really want to!”

“Okay, don’t get all sappy and shit, I just want an excuse to swing a real weapon around wildly.” 

“That is  _ not _ what we’re going to be doing.” David chuckled, walking over and clapping a hand on his head to steer him towards his tent. “Go on, get your rest. I’ll wake you for lunch if you aren’t up by then.”

He wasn’t sure he would actually be tired enough to fall asleep. He just figured he would lay there zoned out but when Max flopped down on his bed, he felt the pull of sleep immediately. 

“Uhh— Max, are you okay? Why were you up early?”

“Because I’ve lost control of my life, Neil, keep up.” 

Max was out cold within a few minutes. Somehow, it was easier to sleep with the sun up and a little more background noise of people around him. 


	3. Chapter 3

This day wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought it would be. Their activities mostly consisted of preparing for a big upcoming nature hike that would take them to a camping site a few miles off, where the kids would pitch tents and make real fires and actual rough it in the woods for a night before going back. She had expected the worst of giving the kids magnesium lighters, but she and David were even more in sync than usual at keeping what passed for order in their world away from the world. 

  
  
But all day long, she was keeping Max out of the corner of her eye. David explained that he gave him the first half of the day off to catch up on sleep and she agreed with his choice. She even went to check on Max once, but she only dared to poke a head through his tent entrance. He was sound asleep on his stomach, face down and shoved into his pillow, snoring softly and all tangled up in his two blankets. There was no faking that lack of grace. He was getting proper shut eye, and that put her at ease.

  
  
And despite his usual shitty attitude, he wasn’t nearly as disruptive as other campers. He even seemed to enjoy the activities a little bit, and he got a big wolfish grin on his face when he was the first to get his fire going by striking his lighter. And then he went around rating everyone one who would make it in the wild, who would go insane, who would get left behind and who would be food. According to him, only he and Nikki would make it. Nikki seconded that by hunting Space Kid, and it was all regular camper stuff from then on. 

  
  
Over all? Good day.

  
  
After a shower, changing into her favorite purple flannels and slippers, she sank into her chair with a cup of hot cocoa to wind down for the night. David was doing his usual final round of checking each and every camper was safe in bed, part of his routine, but nowadays he checked twice. Totally not because of Max.

  
  
She was deep in her thoughts of the night before by the time he returned. Now that Gwen had a moment to herself, she could not get the image of Max lurching himself away from her with that terrible exclamation of utter terror out of her head. She didn’t want to break him down to textbook terms, but she understood a person reacting to a  _ trigger  _ when she saw one. Max had a reason to be afraid of her, he had a reason to scream and run away when she got too close and there was only one new variable that could have caused that. Gwen didn’t want to go there, but hiding from reality wouldn’t change things and it wouldn’t help Max. 

  
  
There was no doubt he was neglected at home, but she had been holding out that it was no more than that. 

  
  
David greeted her as he reentered the cabin and slipped into the bathroom to change into his own sleepwear, before he joined her in his own chair. “Cocoa,” she muttered, picking up his mug and handing it to him. It was their usual routine; hot drinks, some T.V or chatting and then lights out. It had been his idea to end their day, ever since he learned about her anxiety problems. Sometimes she needed to vent, sometimes she just wanted silence or just company. He gave her any one of those things to help her go to sleep with peace of mind. 

  
  
“Thanks, Gwen.” He chirped, sitting cross legged in his chair with his stupid rigid posture. “Did you talk to Max today?”

  
  
“Nah. He really needed the space. You got up early with him, right?”

  
  
“Not exactly. He was in the mess hall when I got there...He was still pretty upset. We never did talk about what happened to him the other night; he wouldn’t tell me.”

  
  
“He wouldn’t talk to me, either.” Gwen picked up the remote and paused their movie. “I think he’s been scared into not telling anyone anything, David.”

  
  
Her co-counselor got very quiet and slowly set down his mug. She could see he was disturbed, but listening. Gwen rubbed her temples and closed her eyes, feeling a tension headache brewing thickly. “You heard him, right? That’s why you came out to check on us.”

  
  
“I thought he was in danger...”

  
  
“I think I scared him, David. I knew he was out of bed for a reason and I tried to tell him he could come stay with us if he wanted, but I got too close and I was still holding the stupid cigarette and he acted like--” she hesitated. There was really only one way to accurately describe his response, how his eyes got so white she saw the whites all around them in the darkness and he trembled like a wet kitten. “Like I was going to stick him with it. He _begged _me not to tell you and said if he let us help him, it would only ‘make things worse’. Th-then you showed up and...you know the rest.”  
  
  
Gwen tried to swallow the thick lump in her throat, as she felt her eyes burn and the guilt rose up like a bad lunch. “He really thought I was going to _hurt _him, David. He didn’t say that, but I kept trying to tell him we could help. You didn’t see him, he was just so...He’s a little shit, but he’s a kid and he deserves to feel safe and I fucking took that away. I’ve never seen him that scared, and that was because of _me_. Because I’m a _weak _person.”

  
  
David’s chair creaked and he filled her blurry vision as he knelt down in front of her chair and gently took her by the shoulders. “You know Max loves you to bits, don’t you?” he told her and she turned her head away, unable to face him openly. “ _ Gwen _ . He does. I’m pretty sure you’re his favorite! He listens to you best, he respects you the most and trusts you more than anyone. You get him in a way I just  _ don’t _ .”

  
  
She just huffed angrily and chewed her lip, until he tugged on her hands with a “Gweeeen?” until she looked back at him. His twinkling warm green eyes, the oh-so-faint saddle of freckles on his nose and thick dark red hair, that sweet smile that could make spring come early. Something about him just made the knots in her stomach loosen so she could breathe normally. “I don’t want to have to sit him down and berate him into telling the truth, David, but I’m scared that’s what it’s going to take. I’d rather have him hate us and be safe than walk on eggshells hoping he’ll make a breakthrough, and then he doesn’t and then he goes home and we never fucking hear from him again.”   
  
  
David’s smile faltered and there was that fear in his eyes, too. “I think he’s scared to say anything, too. He helped me with maintenance yesterday and we sat for a bit and I tried to get him to talk about last night, but he just completely shut down. He let me hug him for a  _ while _ and after, he wouldn’t leave me side until he had to. He even wants to help me again  _ tomorrow _ . I don’t think the problem is that he doesn’t trust us, it’s that he’s more afraid of  _ whatever  _ he’s afraid of.”

  
  
“Not whatever. Whoever.”

  
  
Gwen felt David’s fingers twitch and tighten. He had a spontaneous temper than rarely came out, and she would pay to see it if he ever met  _ whoever _ . It wasn’t common knowledge to anyone but her and people David grew up with, but he was a pacifist by choice. David bent with the wind until he  **didn’t** . 

  
  
_ Hold the phone _ .

  
  
David yelped as she suddenly grabbed his hands tighter and brought them up closer to look at his scars, which had become much more fader over the years or at least that was what he had said. “Uhh-- Gwen, I’m feeling a little--”

  
  
“Shush! I have half an idea!”

  
  
He shushed and then looked continuously more concerned as Gwen began to grin. “We have to help him feel braver.”

  
  
“O-okay? How do we do that?”

  
  
“We teach him to defend himself! Show him he isn’t helpless, give him the proof to see on his own!”

  
  
She could see David catch on to what she was suggesting and he snatched his hands away and stood, and so did she. “I know you hated it, but you were  _ good  _ and you can teach Max a little. It won’t be for fighting, it would help him feel  _ safe  _ and you’re the perfect teacher.” she pressed, putting a hand on his back. She could see him clenching his jaw the way he did when he was stressed and thinking. And he started cracking his knuckles,  _ which she hated _ , but as far as bad habits went, it wasn’t the worst. “It would just be you two. The bonding would be good for him and--”

  
  
“It’s a good idea.” he interrupted her quietly. “I just don’t want him to get an idea of me that isn’t  _ really  _ me. And if he does want to learn, the best way is to spar. What if he can’t handle it?”

  
  
“He gave Daniel a concussion with a full sized acoustic guitar.”

  
  
David opened his mouth to say something, then closed it with a pause. “...Good point. But you have to get up earlier and cover the chores, he’s not going to want to do it during activity hours and I’m not having him up past curfew.”

  
  
“I got you covered.”

  
  
They resumed their routine, settling in their chairs with snacks and drinks, watching one of Gwen’s shows in comfortable silence. She had gotten The Good Place, which she knew David would love and she had been right so far. They didn’t have the t.v turned up very loud, so she could hear the nocturnal ambience outside of their cabin and there were tiny dots of fireflies here and there. Gwen drew her legs up into the chair and opted to close her eyes. Just for a minute. She felt more at peace with things, now that they had made a plan moving forward to help Max. Plans always kept the panic at bay.

* * *

  
  
About an hour into their nightly binging, David went to ask Gwen a question about something but noticed she was fast asleep in her chair. He wanted to be frustrated with having to revisit a part of his past he had literally shoved in a box in a cob-webby corner, but he couldn’t be frustrated with her. She always knew how to problem solve under pressure, and he had come to depend on that in his friend.    


  
So, he got up quietly and turned off the t.v, then pulled back the covers on her bed. She was easy for him to carry, as he carefully slid an arm behind her shoulders and under her knees and lifted her out of the chair slowly. She didn’t make a peep. She just snoozed on. 

  
  
He made sure to take off her slippers for her and pull her blanket up to her shoulders before he turned off the lights and went to bed himself. 

  
  
The next morning, he was amazed to find Gwen was up before he was, lacing up her boots to head out and get started on chores. Before he could even say good morning, she smiled at him sheepishly, big enough to show that one dimple in her right cheek. “You know I’m not one of the kids, right? You didn’t need to tuck me in, weirdo.”

  
  
“You looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to ruin it.” he yawned, getting up and starting to make his bed. 

  
  
“Today’s gonna go good, I can feel it. I’m going to get started on chores and shit, I’ll meet up with you later, okay? And I’ll let Max know where to find you.”

  
  
He watched her leave with a bounce in her step and he felt a touch of pride at how energetic she seemed to be. It was a change to see Gwen optimistic, but it was infectious. He went about his own morning with a smile, even as he hauled a punching bag held together by duct tape from the activity shed and hung it from a tree a ways off from camp. 

  
  
He had ditched the vest and bandana for a bit, and his smile faded into nothing as he leaned against the tree as he wrapped his hands. It was still muscle memory, after all this time. 

  
  
Daivd looked up at the sound of twigs and leaves pressed underfoot to see Max trekking slowly up to him, his expression growing more and more suspicious until he stepped about ten feet away. “The fuck is this?”

  
  
“New activity!” David tried to keep his voice upbeat and took out an extra roll of wrapping. “You may want to hang your hoodie up, you’ll have an easier time without it.”

  
  
“I thought we were gonna do chores?” Max surprisingly obeyed, wrestling his hoodie over his head and depositing it with David’s vest. 

  
  
“Gwen’s got it. C’mere, I’ll show you how to do this.” David knelt down and waited for Max to come up to him. It was like coaxing a shy animal, but finally Max held out his own smaller, darkly colored palms. “So you start with a loop like this and put it over your thumb. Then you pull it over the back of your hand. Always the back, otherwise the wrapping can pull your hand in the closed motion and that’s no good.” he explained as he made sure Max’s hands were securely and properly protected. It wasn’t just about avoiding tearing skin, it was also about supporting the bones and joints to avoid injury. “Wiggle your fingers, feel okay?”

  
  
“Kind of tight,” Max admitted, still bewildered. 

  
  
“A little tight is good. Have you ever boxed?”

  
  
“Have you?”

  
  
“Sleepy Peak High boxing team champion for three years running.” David replied, his voice flatter than he meant it to be. 

  
  
“You don’t sound that proud.”

  
  
Kids were perceptive, and Max doubly so. David shook his hands out a bit, not wanting to dampen the situation. This was meant to be encouraging. “Well, I liked playing music better than fighting. Either would get me a scholarship and I picked music.”   


David didn’t get into what an absolute disaster at home that was. This was about Max and for Max, it would stay that way. “We’re gonna stretch first, so we don’t get hurt--”

  
  
“What’s the fucking point of this? If this is another lame ass attempt to find me ‘the activity’--”

  
  
“Fighting is  **not ** an activity,” David cut him off, not meaning to but he was serious. And Max had to take this seriously, and he could see the shift in his tone got Max to stand ramrod straight in surprise. “I may not have liked it, but there were a lot of times in my life when it helped keep me safe. That’s why I’m teaching you. If anything happens, if someone tries to hurt you, you’re going to know what to do. This is for self defense  _ only _ , do you understand?”

  
  
“Y-yeah,” he stammered and David felt a little guilty. He didn’t want to be strict. He didn’t want to sound like his grandfather. “I understand.”

  
  
“Okay,” the counselor breathed and reached out, giving Max’s chin a playful bump with his knuckles. “You’re gonna do great. Show me your fighting stance.”

  
  
“I don’t know--”

  
  
“It’s okay, just use your instincts. It’s more natural than you’d think.”

  
  
They spent an hour training. Basic stretches, stances and movement. He adjusted Max to hold his guard-arm closer to his eyes and his punching arm either by belt-level or up near his chin.  _ “It depends on how you’re punching, but we’ll get into that later. Let’s just stick with the chin for now, it’s best for a quick jab.” _

_   
_ __   
Max seemed pretty nervous at first, but over time, he seemed to actually become focused. At the end, he let him throw a few punches and held the bag for him. “Don’t just throw your arm. All your power shifts from one side of your body forward. From your back foot--”

  
  
He watched Max’s features scrunch up in focus as he rocked back just a bit and then threw all of his weight behind a proper right hook and David actually braced himself a little at the impact. “Jump back!”

  
  
Max did as he was told, hopping from the front of his feet a short distance away. In a real fight, he would’ve avoided a counter-attack. David let the bag go and knelt down in front of Max, who was huffing a little from the exertion. “How was that?” 

  
  
“Amazing!” David smiled, a real smile, purely formed of pride. He moved Max arms length away by the shoulders, “I’m going to teach you a self-defense move before we wrap it up, okay? I’ll show you it first, and then you try it.”

  
  
“I don’t know…”

  
  
“I won’t hurt you, I promise. Grab my wrist...Go on, it’s okay.” Max had no problem being violent with the past but now he seemed completely on edge. When he did, David made sure to be gentle. “So your hand that’s grappled, you  _ yank  _ it straight up like this and twist your other shoulder towards your attacker. Than hard as you can, you jam your elbow into their ribs.” He made the gesture and he felt Max flinch as his elbow stopped just short of hitting him. “Got it?”

  
  
The boy nodded silently and he let David’s wrist go. “Let me try.”

  
  
“Sure. You can actually hit me, I’ll be okay.”

  
  
They did it a few times, and he worked on Max’s hesitation. The trick was to pull his held arm high up with as much speed and strength as he could and not hesitate on the elbow strike. The first few, David barely felt. 

  
  
The last one, he got the wind knocked out of him a little and he knew he would have a bruise the next day. Max stepped back, a tiny smile starting in his face, holding his hands up instinctively and looking ready to go again. “And then you do what?” David asked, ignoring the pain. _ Ribs are the worst _ .

  
  
“Uh...Punch them? Nose, right?”

  
  
“Wrong. You run.”

  
  
“But I could--”

  
  
“You  _ run _ .” David told him again, his voice sharper this time. “If it’s Daniel, if it’s a kidnapper, if it’s  _ anyone _ , you run away and you make a scene and yell as loud as you can for help. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve learned or how good you are at it, Max, you’re a ten year old kid and you will not win a fight against someone bigger and older than you.”

  
  
He saw Max grit his teeth and start angrily undoing his wrappings. He knew he would be upset, but it was the truth. No illusions. “But you would certainly leave them with something to remember you by.” he added encouragingly. “If we keep doing this every morning, you’ll go home like a real Rocky.”

  
  
“Who?”

  
  
“...A really, really good fighter. You’d be able to protect yourself, you know?”

  
  
He saw the realization click for Max and the utterly murderous look of  _ how fucking dare you?  _ The kid gave him was honestly just what he expected. “I hope you never have to, though.” David added quietly. “But now you see you’re capable just in case.”

  
  
“What if they’re too big for me to hit them in the ribs? Ever think about that?” Max challenged him, trying to poke a hole in this plan. And David was ready for that. “Meet me here at the same time tomorrow and I’ll teach you.” 

  
  
Max threw his hand wrappings on the ground and started to leave but stopped short like he had come to a physical wall. David was just picking up after him when he turned and demanded, “Do you really think that?”

  
  
“Think what?”

  
  
“That-- that I could protect myself. That I’d be good enough.”

  
  
The doubt in Max’s voice was all the confirmation he needed. David didn’t doubt it now and he felt his blood pumping in his ears, almost deafening him to his own voice that was absolutely alien with how calm and gentle it was. “Of course, bud. Don’t forget your hoodie.”

  
  
He picked it up and rolled up the torso, just following instincts. All the campers and students who he had helped put coats and scarves on over the years, it was second nature. But Max actually went up to him and held his arms up, letting David slide it on and help him put his arms through the sleeves. _ It’s a size too small _ . He was just fixing the hood that had become twisted up when something caught his eye.

  
  
There, he could see a little bit down the back of Max’s shirt. A circular, discolored scar at the top of and just to the left of his spine where his collar always covered it. There was no mistaking it. It was a burn scar. 

  
  
It took  _ every fiber _ of his being to not react. To not pull him in for a hug, to not say something about it, to not lose his mind in a rage. “Go get breakfast.” he said calmly, pushing Max towards camp by his shoulder. “Make sure to eat before you come train tomorrow.”

  
  
Whether or not Max said anything as he ran off to join his friends in the mess hall, David had no idea. He couldn’t hear him over the pounding of his adrenaline. He balled his fists up so tight, the joints cracked and he might have drawn blood if they hadn’t still been wrapped against his nails  _ gouging  _ into his palms.  _ It all makes sense _ . 

  
  
David rounded on the bag and threw his knuckles into it, then again with his other hand. Again, again and again in a frenzy, until he felt something  _ give  _ and he dropped to his hands in knees to catch his breath. The bag sagged, a new hole in the fabric ripped clean open from the abuse and his hands were shaking and stinging from the impacts. 

  
  
Any hope he had that Max had no more suffering hidden in his life was gone like ashes in the wind. He felt nine years old again, flying into a grief stricken rage and smashing anything breakable he could grab, unable to comprehend such a terrible truth. Screaming, crying, begging and bargaining with anyone that might be listening to change it. Maybe there wasn’t anyone. Or maybe there was, and they just didn’t listen or heard him and left him with silence. 

  
  
David stayed there for a long time, feeling like he had  _ lost  _ something all over again. Loathing the unfairness that it had been  _ her _ , the kindest person in the world, someone who was needed and loved. He watched her wither and lose her strength, watched her ability to breathe on her own be taken from her as her limited years ran out and he could do  _ nothing  _ but stand by until they were gone. 

  
  
No tears came. He was too angry. Why, why was the world like this? Why did it rip away good people? Why did it allow  _ this  _ to happen? Max must have had teachers or neighbors, someone who should have seen he was scared and hurting and needed help. Did they just give up on him? Because  _ what _ , he was a difficult kid? Because it was too  _ unpleasant  _ to deal with?

  
  
_ Max isn’t terminal. He has a chance, he can still be helped. _ He’d made a promise to him, and he was going to make damn sure he kept it. There was a lot to be done. Evidence to record, a phone call to make, arrangements for the consequences...

  
  
David got up to his feet and took the duct tape, starting to repair the hole so it would still be serviceable next morning. He was going to start with teaching Max to give back what he got.    
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, I threw in a little nod to my older brother. He’s a new dad with another baby on the way, and an all around wonderful person. He defines the “don’t mistake kindness for weakness” personality, and he’s a legend at my taekwondo academy (meaning my teacher has ridiculously high expectations, whoopee). 
> 
> Any time my brother ever got violent in his life, it was to protect someone. My dad always says, “Your brother bends with the wind until he doesn’t.” I think David is the same way. People may see him as a push over but when it truly counts, he stands his ground and pushes back.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing much to say y’all, just warning you it’s gonna be an angsty one. Also, there will be a song featured here. Credit to Billie Eilish, song is called Come Out and Play.

****  
Every morning for a few days, Max dragged himself out of bed at the crack of dawn. He ate a quiet, early breakfast with David, who had been less of his optimistic self of late. Not depressed or anything, just more down to earth. While a break was nice, it concerned Max a little bit. He borderline missed the counselor he had come to know. Not really the whole endless sunshine and rainbows he spewed, but a David who wasn’t constantly suspicious and waiting for Max to confirm or deny something. Why else would he have decided to teach him self defense?   


  
Despite how he felt like he was on the edge of something, Max sort of _ loved _it. It was something he could take seriously and put real effort into, and David did have a point. Maybe if he’d known this stuff, shit like getting kidnapped by Woodscouts wouldn’t happen to him so easily. And neither would...other things. 

  


On the other hand, it was kind of unnerving how much David knew about fighting. But it did help some things make sense, like that one time he almost knocked Bonquisha’s new boyfriend out with a single uppercut.  


  
It also explained the scars on his hands. They were right where someone would split or rip their knuckles from not wearing protective equipment, and he wondered if that was actually what happened or if David had somehow gotten in fights. It was impossible to picture, no matter the proof. But David seemed really gung-ho about making sure Max retained this stuff, and it was progressing to actual sparring. Their current project was making sure Max didn’t freeze up if someone took a swing at him.   


  
David never _ truly _ hit him. Max knew he wouldn’t do that. It was light contact, so if he blocked or avoided it, it simulated a real fight and made practice the most effective. But that didn’t stop that reaction of his muscles seizing up as someone bigger and stronger than him made a move to crack him in the face. He was more motivated to appear like he wasn’t _ freaking out _ the entire time to avoid confirming any suspicions than he was to learn and enjoy it. He resented the fear response that had obviously been ingrained into his body and even now it held power over him. He didn’t want it to take over.   


  
Although, it was still incredibly satisfying to beat on an inanimate object until his energy was spent. Or David. Healthy outlet and all that bullshit, blah blah blah.   


  
His counselor let him wrap his hands himself today, but David made sure to double check and adjust them, fussing quietly to himself. Some things never change. “Today’s gonna be a little different, are you ready?” he asked him.   


  
“Do I get to kick you now?” Max asked hopefully and David let him go. “Ha, no, but we’ll work on that soon. No hitting today, just escaping grapples.”   


The hair stood up on the back of his neck. “What, uh-- what does that mean?”  


  
David responded by grabbed him by the collar, spinning him around and locking his arms around Max, pinning him against his chest and the boys arms to his side. “Sometimes, you get grabbed before you get a chance to put your hands up. You gotta learn what to do if that happens.”   


  
_ “What the _ ** _fuck_ ** , David?!”   


  
“Stay calm, you’re okay.”   


  
“Fuck you, David! I’ll fucking break your god damn arms! You son of a bitch!”   
  
Max kept trying to kick backwards and his heel connected with shin and stomped toes a few times, but David simply didn’t budge. He was like a stone pillar. Finally, Max gave up, having worn himself out with his tantrum. _ This is fucking humiliating. _ This must have been the equivalent effort to scruffing a cat for David. “See what I mean? Like that, you have no real power behind any attack.”   


  
“So at this point, I would be in the back of a fucking van?”   


  
“You can get out of this, Max, just think. You can’t hit me or break away _ forward _ , what else is there? Use your instincts, I believe in you.”   


  
Honestly, he was having trouble breathing normally and hoping David couldn’t feel how _ fast _ his heart was going with panic. That was too familiar. _ He didn’t like it _ . He’d rather be back in bed right now sleeping off his anxiety, but David expected him to figure this out. He could tap out at any time if it was too much and he was tempted to use it for once, but a bigger part of him didn’t want to prove David wrong for having faith in him.   


  
He tried pushing back against him a few times to see if he could manage agood hard shove and when that didn’t work, he just tried twisting and squirming to wear the grip down. _ Not back, so… _   


_ Oh my god, I get it. _

  


_ Down. _   


  
Max took a breath and at the same time, he shoved his arms up against David’s and twisted around as he dropped his weight straight down to the ground. It yielded just enough space that he could slip away and-- _ there! Free! _   


  
He shoved down the urge to kick David in the knee and followed that stupid advice of just running straight forward to the tree ahead before stopping. What he had just done didn’t really sink in for a minute. “It worked? Holy shit. I mean, of course it worked! I did it! Ha! Try it again, asshole!”   


  
As David approached him and Max just excitedly punched him a few times in the side and stomach, his counselor laughing and lazily blocking what were probably just mosquito bites to him. “Okay, okay! That was really good. Gravity can help you a lot.”   


  
“That was awesome. I got away. I actually--” his fast pulse was going with happy adrenaline now. He might actually stand a chance. Knowing that the next time someone tried to throw him into a room and lock him in, he knew how to break away and run for it.   


  
_ But...where would I run? _   


  
And just like that, the temporary victory died. 

It _ still _didn’t matter. Locked doors, locked windows, no phone, no computer. In the end, they would just catch him again, just like Mommy always said. He had asked her once if they could run away like when he was a baby and she told him there was nowhere to go. They were safest trying to be good. Fighting back only made Father angrier and it wasn’t worth it to try. 

_ I’m so fucking stupid. There’s nowhere to go. No one to call for help. I’m fucking trapped no matter how hard I fight! All it’s going to do is piss him off and then Father will _ ** _never _ ** _ let go back to school or outside and Mommy is going to be mad I broke the rules— _   


  
“Max!”   


  
David must have been talking to him, but he had been completely zoned out. Oh, shit, not again. “What?” he asked irritably, trying not to appear as despairing as he felt but it didn’t change how David was looking at him. Brow furrowed, lips pressed in a thin worried line, trying to get him to make eye contact with him as if that would yield any helpful insight. “Where’d you go, buddy?” his counselor asked. “Are you alright? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”   


  
“No. Stop being so needy.” Then he tried to put a hand on his shoulder and Max jerked himself back, unconsciously using a movement he had learned two days ago. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”   


  
“What-- _ why? _ I thought you were having fun. You’ve worked so hard and done so well!”   


  
“Yeah, and for what? It’s not like it’s going to help. If some pedo tries to lure me into a car, I’m still fucking barely sixty pounds and obviously if _ you _ could get the jump on me, anyone else can.”   


  
“You’re only sixty--?”   


  
“ _ Oh my god, David, that is not the part of that sentence to focus on! _ Why can’t you just stop this shit already?! When summer ends, I’m going home and you’ll _ never _ see me again and I’ll stop being your problem. Stop trying to impart some kind of lasting lesson to remember you by, because I don’t give a shit about it or _ you! _” 

  


His voice got steadily louder until he was full on shouting, waving his hands, raving. A famous Max Rant, one for the books. He wasn’t even truly angry at David, he was just **angry. ** “You haven’t changed at all! You still have this fairy tale idea that any of this matters, that you can fix me.”   


  
David’s face, at first shocked and alarmed, hardened with fierce indignation. “I do **not **think you need to be fixed.” 

  
“What do you want, a cookie? Point one for David! All of this has to end. And when it does, you’ll move on with your life and forget I ever fucking existed and next summer, I won’t be here but new kids will be and you’ll be better fucking off because none of them will be me. I’m not some charity cause for you to grab onto to fix your broken heart _ because you don’t have a family to give a damn about you either, David! _ ”   


  
The last bit as an accident. He knew he went too far. He didn’t want to be cruel.   


  
He just didn’t want them to waste their time on a hopeless cause.   


  
Max caught his breath and waited in silence for David to tell him off, to storm away, to give up. _ Please. Please just give up. I’m not fucking worth it _ . _ I’m so tired. _   


  
But instead, David just kneeled down in front of him, face to face with his camper and took him by the wrist. Max tried to yank himself away, but just like at the hospital, just like now, David was stronger than him and he wasn’t letting him go. “You don’t know this, because you were sleeping when I said it. But when I took you to the hospital, Max, I stayed with you all night. I talked to you, I sang to you, I watched over you and I made you a promise.”   


  
_ What the fuck is this he going on about n-- _   
  
“I promised that I would _ always _ look after you. Come hell or high water, I would try my best to keep you safe and happy, to help you grow and support you like you deserve to be. I promised to _ always _ care.”   


  
“Shut up! You don’t fucking mean it!” Max spat, twisting his arm to get away but when David let him go unexpectedly, he both had no and every intention of running off this time. Old Max and Camp Max were at war with each other.   


  
“My dad made me the same promise, Max. And do you know what he did?”   


  
He didn’t answer. He tried his best to glare daggers at David, but it was crumbling fast. When David didn’t react to his outburst, it seemed to just take all the wind out of his sails.   


  
“He left. Mom got sick and they found out she only had so many years to live and he gave up. He ran away, and left the two of us alone. And I was so _ angry _ with Granda when he came back after she died, when he tried to get custody of me. I hated him for hiding it from me. I hated him because I thought he was a monster for taking my dad away a second time, but I look at you and I get it.”   


  
There were tears in David’s eyes but he watched the man take a deep breath and blink them away. “He broke a promise like that once, and he would do it again, and Granda wasn’t going to let me go through it a second time. My father isn’t entitled to me, he doesn’t **own ** me and he doesn’t just to choose when he wants to actually _ be _ a father. Granda didn’t care if I cursed him and hated him forever. He only cared that he had done right for me and I _ finally _ understand that and Max, I am _ sorry _ that I don’t always know what you need and I am so sorry that people have hurt you so much that you just expect it of them. But I will _ never _ be one of those people. I am never going to give up and I am never going to forget you or replace you.”   


  
_ My father isn’t entitled to me. He doesn’t own me. _

Max thought he was going to be sick. He really did. A full blown wave of nausea hit him and send his head spinning, and he held his stomach, fearing he was going to lose his breakfast all over the forest floor. He didn’t know whether to retch or to cry. “Why? I’m the fucking worst. I’m a bad kid, a _ mistake _ . All I do is—“   


  
“You are _ not _ a mistake! Who told you that? Your parents?”   


  
Max was beginning to hyperventilate. He couldn’t breathe. His throat and chest hurt, and he felt like there wasn’t enough air and he was desperately trying to find some. 

He was so sick of feeling like he couldn’t think for himself, with the **rules ** and their words poisoning his mind against **himself ** and **everyone ** and **everything** . Part of him believed it when David told him he wasn’t a bad kid. He was worth caring about. But it was overpowered by the voice that was screaming louder, always there, always wearing him down. _ If his own parents didn’t want him, nobody would. _ Why would Father punish him for being alive if there wasn’t something fundamentally _ wrong _ with him? But Max didn’t want to go back.   


He wanted to stay with the people who tucked them into their own beds when he was sick, he wanted to wake up in the morning to homemade breakfast they ate together, he wanted to be treated like he was wanted, to be told they were proud of him when he tried his best.   


  
He didn’t want to go back to locked doors and a stomach that was half full some of the time _ at best _ and begging his mom for help even though he knew she would turn away because maybe Father had already broken her a long time ago.   


  
_ Just tell him! Just fucking tell him, stop being a coward! They aren’t even here, they can’t do _ ** _anything _ ** _ to you! _   


  
“David, I really, really don’t want to do this anymore.” he said hoarsely. “Please. I don’t need it, I really don’t. You believe me, right? David? I can’t breathe, I need to go back to bed, I can’t _ breathe… _ ”   
  
He could see in David’s eyes that he didn’t but his voice wavered and he could feel his own cheeks were wet. He kept asking him over and over again if he believed him and he knew he sounded like a crazy person, repeating a mantra when he barely had air in his lungs to speak. He didn’t even stop as David reached and put his arms around him, starting to rock him back and forth. He heard him start to gently hum and sing, but the words didn’t really register to Max until his breathing evened back out and he stopped mumbling robotically.   


  
_ “And I know it makes you nervous, _   
_ But I promise you it’s worth it. _   
_ To show them everything you kept inside _   
_ Don’t hide… _   
_ Too shy to say, but I hope you stay, _   
_ Don’t hide away, _   
_Come out and play. ”_   


  
He barely felt David’s thumb wipe away his tears and then cup his head, gently passing over his hair in a soothing motion. Max didn’t even realize he had started crying.   


  
“ _ Look up out of your window, _   
_ See snow, don’t let it in though _   
_ Leave home, feel the wind blow _   
_ ‘Cause it’s colder here inside in silence. _   
_ You don’t have to keep it quiet. _   
_And I know it makes you nervous but I promise you it’s worth it… ”_   
  
“David?”

  
  
“Yes?”

  
  
“If-- If something happened...after camp, I’m not saying anything will happen, but if it did and I called you, what would you do?”   


  
“If you needed me to, I’d drive straight to Portland to get you. And so would Gwen. She would stand in a hurricane for you, kiddo.”   


  
“You don’t even know where in Portland I _ live _ , dumbass.” He retorted with a hiccup at the tail end of his sentence.   


  
David laughed and Max managed a very tired, very strained smile, as he rested his head against his counselor’s chest and tried not to spiral again. He hadn’t had a real breakdown like that since before leaving home, and they usually lasted a while. “I mean it, though, Max. Everything I said. But...it would help a lot if you talked to me.”   


  
_ Aw, fuck, not this again. _

“I want to. It’s just so _ hard _ , I-I don’t know why. When I think about it, I can’t breathe and I fucking freak out and I can’t think like a _ normal _ person anymore…”   


  
He began to raise his voice again as he ran the danger of going over the edge again into a meltdown but David continued to comb his fingers through his messy black hair and it was literally like a magic trick. Right away, Max felt less overwhelmed. “What about questions that are just yes or no answers? After a little while, we can try something else.”   


  
Max finally pulled himself away from David’s arms, sitting in front of him with his head down as he sniffled and rubbed his eyes hard. _ Get it together, loser _ . “I can _ try _ that.” he answered dejectedly.   


  
He watched as David unwrapped their hands, since training was clearly over and he accepted the bottle of water his counselor gave him. He remembered Gwen telling him that crying a lot dehydrated a person, and it was important to drink water after to feel better. At the moment, he _ missed _ her. He had barely spoken to her in days and he could see her trying her best to give him space while being simultaneously supportive and he felt guilty for shutting her out.   


  
“You can ask,” he said when he felt ready, before he lost his nerve again.   



	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter, y'all! It's on to Part 3 after this. Thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback and kudos! It's really helped me stay productive. Positive reinforcement is the s h i t. Anyway, see you all in part 3 of the series!

It was a half hour before the rest of the campers were up, and Gwen had really gotten the hang of the morning chores. Whenever she finished early, she grabbed a snack and met her boys at their training area, usually just to watch proudly as Max tried his best to give David internal bleeding.  _ Give ‘em hell, you ferocious little wolverine _ .

  
  
But today, she didn’t hear David giving instructions or Max’s little effort noises. She heard them talking quietly, the air around them deathly still. Gwen made sure to tread lightly and lingered between the trees to listen.

  
  
“Does your dad smoke?”   
  


“Yes.”   
  


  
“Does your mom?”   
  


  
Hesitation. “No?”   
  


  
“Does she do anything else  _ like  _ smoking?”   
  


  
“Yes.”   
  


  
“Do you want to tell me what?”   
  


  
_ “No!” _ _   
  
_

  
“Do you go to school?”   
  


  
“No.”   
  


  
“Are you homeschooled?”   
  


  
“Kind of? Shit-- wait, that wasn’t yes or no.”   
  


  
“It’s okay, you can answer how you want. Whatever comes naturally.”   
  


  
“This is fucking stupid. I should be able to do this simple thing without falling apart!  _ God dammit! _ ”   
  


  
Gwen peeked around the tree, seeing them sitting cross legged across from each other, as Max dropped his head into his hands. She heard David speak to him quietly, probably encouragement as he held him by his scrawny shoulders. She decided it was time to intervene and stepped into the clearing.   
  


  
Max lifted his head for a second and his eyes got wide when he saw her, and he immediately put it down again. David touched his back for a second in reassurance, before he got up and headed over to her quickly. “Hey,” he whispered, stopping her by the arm. “We made a system.”   
  


  
“I heard. Is he okay?”   
  


  
“He’s being pretty hard on himself, but he  _ wants  _ to talk about home. I honestly think he’s making progress. I just wish it wasn’t so  _ exhausting  _ for him.”

  
“It was always going to be unpleasant, David. Think he could take a break?”   
  


  
“Um,” David looked back at Max, who perked up with a nervous expression when he saw that. There was no way he didn’t know they were talking about him. “I don’t think he’s up for a regular camp day, Gwen.”   
  


  
“What if I just hung out with him at the counselors cabin? You shouldn’t sit out today, campers are starting to pick up on you being gone more often and Max doesn’t need to be connected to it.”   
  
  
They discussed it for a while, but in the end, they decided to risk isolating Max for a day. His nerves were clearly shot, and they didn’t want to risk him going into another episode, now that he clearly experienced them. By David’s description, she was positive they were panic attacks.    
  


  
Their conversation trailed off as Max picked up his hoodie and shuffled over to them, shooting them each a judgmental look. “ _ So?” _   
  


  
“Congrats, kid, you’re with me today. Junk food and movies.”   
  


  
“For real?” 

  
  


Did his face just light up? She was just seeing shit. “Yeah, even some of the scary British stuff.”   
  


  
“Hey, I did not say you could--” David began but got shushed by the two of them.    
  


  
Max didn’t exactly seem excited. She could see his face was flushed, his eyes red and puffy and he had a shaky, fatigued look to him. But he put up no resistance to following her back to the counselors cabin (she retrieved his stuff from his tent along the way) and he instantly made himself at home in David’s chair, as usual.    
  


  
At first, he dozed for a while, curled up in his quilt with his bear that he held onto with a death grip. It gave her a warm fuzzy feeling, seeing that he treasured something one of his counselors had given to him and it actually brought him comfort. 

  
  


The last few days, David had told her his confirmed suspicions, how he had accidentally seen a cigarette burn scar on Max’s back. There was no denying it now, his fears, his erratic behavior as they got closer and closer to the truth. Ninety percent of his aggressive tendencies were probably just desperate, impulsive defense mechanisms he had to come up with on the spot when getting to camp because he’d never been given any tools in their place.   
  


  
Gwen made a quick trip to grab some popsicles from the commissary and by the time she got back, Max was up and had made a mess on the floor rifling through what they had available to watch. “Ah ha, he rises. Feel better?”   
  


  
He grunted in reply but stuck his hand out. She placed the popsicle in it and he tugged the wrapper off.    
  


  
“Gaah,  **fuck** , what is wrong with you?!” She cringed in horror as he proceeded to take a big chomp out of it. He just gave her a closed-mouth grin as he crunched the flavored ice and she could feel her bones shuddering in sympathy.  _ There’s no way he’s fully human _ . Max put in one of the lamer scary movies they had and they settled into their respective seats, with popcorn and gummy candies and whatnot to get them through the day.    
  


  
Honestly, she loved this. Max didn’t seem bothered by her presence and he was joking and talking like he used to. He was turning a corner.    
  


  
When the movie ended and it was time to pick another, she took her chance to talk with him. “I heard you talking to David.”   
  


  
“I’m trying to listen to your advice. It’s just not as easy as you’d think.”   
  


“Hey, I never said it’d be easy.”   
  


  
Max had wrapped the quilt up and over his head, in a little old Russian lady fashion with just his and Mr. Honeynut’s face poking out of the opening. “Gwen?”   
  


  
“Max?”   
  


  
“Has David ever broken a promise to you?”   
  


  
Gwen put the movie case down and looked over her shoulder at him, at those big round green eyes that had a semblance of hope in them. It reminded her of teaching the kids how to build a fire. They had to get the right balance of feeding the spark or it would go out without enough or be smothered by too much. “Not once since I’ve known him, and he’s made a lot.”   
  


  
Max slouched in his chair and she made her way over to it. “Scooch.”   
  


  
“No way, this is mine.”   
  


  
“Scooch!”   
  


  
He made an intelligible growling noise as she slid him to the side and sat down next to him, linking an arm around his neck in the most gentle, affectionate head lock. He just glared straight ahead; she was sure he was contemplating biting her. “Max, I don’t know why your mom sent you here. And I know you want to hate it, and you have a lot of reasons to but I do know one thing. You are here, and that gives me a reason to get out of bed.”   
  


  
He was considerably less murder-eyed.

  
“Whatever happened to you, you did  _ not  _ deserve it. And it’s going to get easier over time to deal with it. The pain gets smaller and smaller, and eventually it doesn’t rule your life anymore. I get how it feels. It’s like your mind and body are working against you, right?”   
  
“Right,” he sounded surprised. But she was just quoting her therapist back home.    
  


  
“That’s not any shortcoming on your part, Max. It’s  _ normal _ , it affects you in every way and it manifests differently for everyone. That’s why I like writing, because it’s like-- it’s like a way to get it out without being vulnerable. It gives me more control over what I’m feeling.”   
  


  
“Seriously? Your cringe-y fanfiction--”   
  


  
She yanked the quilt down over his face. “Fucking let me finish, you little shit! I’m trying to do something wholesome here!” And muffled snickering from him followed. God, it was good to hear him laugh. “What I mean is if you don’t want to talk, you can write letters. I’ll give you envelopes and you can keep them and if you ever want to show them to us, you can or you can use them to help you talk to us in person.”   
  
  
“And risk turning into you?”   
  


  
“...I’m taking your gummy worms.”   
  


  
“Try me, bitch, I know kung-fu now!”   
  


  
“David fucking taught you boxing, that is  _ wildly  _ different!”

  
  


Max readied a fist and she held a finger up, giving him the  **look** .  _ Try it, motherfucker, see what happens.  _   
  


  
He slowly lowered it. “...Do you really think the letters thing could help?”   
  


  
“It won’t hurt to try it.”   
  


  
“I’m...I’m sorry, Gwen.”   
  


  
_ That  _ threw her off. Gwen pulled back and looked down at him, but he wasn’t able to meet her eyes. It wasn’t like him to apologize. It wasn’t impossible, but he only did that when he really truly felt terrible or if he was being sarcastic. “What the hell did you do?”    
  


  
“I didn’t do anything!”   
  


  
_ Whoa _ . “Max, I was kidding. I meant why are you sorry?”   
  


  
“Because I ignored you and treated you like shit for something that wasn’t your fault. You didn’t mean to mess me up. I’m-- I’m already messed up.”    
  


  
_ He means the whole cigarette thing. _ She watched Max steal glances at her out of the corner of his eyes. “We’re both messed up, Satan. But you and me are good, like always. Sometimes, life isn’t fair and parents fuck you up. But that’s why we have friends to veg out with. Let me show you how to do it like a pro.”   
  


  
By the time David got back to the cabin, it had been completely rearranged. Mattresses were pulled from the bed and put on the middle of the floor together and the chairs and desks were used to support blankets thrown over them, along with the electric camping lantern inside. With the spare blankets and pillows, Gwen successfully created the ultimate nest to watch t.v from and Max complained it was for little kids but he settled in quickly enough when it was finished.   
  


  
She didn’t tell him her parents used to do this for her on stormy nights, albeit less elaborate but it had the effect she intended. He nodded off halfway through their last movie and slouched against her unintentionally. Gwen shifted him to lay down with his head on her lap, making sure he was comfortable and could feel her presence. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel alone. It was back to normal the next morning. Max needed normalcy for a little while.

* * *

David didn’t even recognize the cabin interior when he walked in, and Gwen just gave him a grin and a thumbs up when he looked curiously into what she  _ claimed  _ was an architectural masterpiece. “Indoor camping, at its finest.” she whispered, not wanting to wake the conked out boy on her lap but she did motion for David to join them. 

  
  


_ This is ridiculous. _ He was pretty certain he wouldn’t fit inside but after some awkward crawling and Gwen stifling a giggle when he almost knocked the whole thing down in them, he managed to find a comfortable spot to lounge on the other side of Max, who had rolled over and curled up into a tiny ball between them.

  
  


He absent mindedly fixed the quilt around him and made sure a pillow was under his head. He kept thinking about about their talk, if it could be called that. It was always impressive how fast Max could fly into a full blown yelling and cursing and coming up with the most outlandishly vindictive things to say. 

  
  


And David had been prepared to talk him down,  _ despite how particularly hurtful that outburst had been,  _ but then Max broke down before he could get a word in. And David had no clue what had set him off in the first place. Seconds before, he had seemed happy and excited and then he just withdrew into himself completely. Then it exploded. He devolved into unintelligible pleas that made no real sense and hyperventilating breaths that bordered on him passing out from lack of air. He wasn’t certain Max had even been fully aware of what was happening to him. Maybe David had said the wrong thing or it was the training or maybe it was just something that had been building for a while. Either way, Max clearly was...traumatized somehow. And that trauma was starting to come out unpredictably.

  
  


Did he really think all those things? That he was a mistake? That David would just stop caring about him at the drop of a hat? How could Max have such a  _ low  _ sense of self worth? 

  
  


David knew the answer. His parents, why else? He knew that feeling, wondering what was wrong with him to make the people who were supposed to care most not care at all. He had wrestled with it for years. And now, seeing how tortured Max was over it, how twisted around his parents treatment made him, something just clicked into place. His grandfather had his flaws, but he did do one thing right and David only now appreciated it. He raised him and loved him and stood between David and someone who would have only let him down. 

  
  


He felt like such an  _ idiot _ , wishing a man who has abandoned his dying wife and toddler when the going got tough would come back into his life and give a damn about him. How much would that love be worth? It wouldn’t even have real meaning. He had already proven there were limits to it. “ _ You’ll understand someday, Davey. You deserve better.” _

  
  


He hated that once again, Granda was right about something. And because of him, he had a way to get through to Max, as much as he hated how painful it was turning out to be. 

  
  
  


David nodded off after a while, but woke up on the floor next to the mattresses since Gwen and Max were sprawled out over the space recklessly and he must have gotten booted in the night.  _ Yep, that checks out, _ he thought with a smile, sitting up with a stiff neck but he didn’t mind. Gwen must have been having a good dream, because she kept smiling subtly in her sleep and Max still looked deeply passed out. It was likely the longest he had slept in a while, going on a full nine hours.

  
  


He tucked them both in properly again, and crawled out of the fort to check the time.  _ Phew, didn’t over sleep. _

  
  


David contemplated for a long time by his window about how he was going to go forward. Finally, he picked up his phone and looked back at them before he slipped quietly out of the front door to make a call.

  
  


It rang two, three, five times before anyone picked up and his stomach did a flip flop. “H-hello?”

  
  


_ “Davey?” _

  
  


“Hi.”

  
  


_ “Do y’ken what time it is?” _

  
  


“Sorry. Were you sleeping?”

  
  


_ “I’m nae bloody sleeping now.” _

  
  


“I can call back la—“

  
  


_ “No! No, it’s fine. It’s good to hear from ya. Is everythin’ well?”  _

  
  


“Umm,” he glanced through the screen at the fort. “Pretty far from it, actually. There’s a kid in my camp that’s having a hard time at home and it got me thinking about...things said on both sides. 

  
  


_ “Hard time how?” _

  
  


“I can tell you over breakfast? This Sunday, maybe? It’s free activity day, so the campers do whatever and my friend Gwen can watch them—“

  
  


_ “Sterling Pancake House? In town? Round eight?” _

  
  


David smiled a little. “Perfect. See you, Granda.”

  
  


The screen door opened and slammed shut.

  
  


_ “I’ll see ya, poppet.” _

  
  


David hung up and looked down to see a drowsy Max with full crazy bed head, hoodie thrown over his clothes he had slept in, giving him an inquisitive look. “Who the hell were you talking to?”

  
  


“I am actually getting breakfast with my grandfather this weekend, nosey.”

  
  


“Huh.” Max raised his eyebrows, then turned back towards camp. “Good for you.”

  
  


“You ready for today? Last day of prep training before the nature hike tomorrow. Today, you’re learning fishing and foraging.”

  
  


“You’re gonna give poles with pieces of string and sharp objects attached to them to these lunatics to swing around and then set them loose to find edible mushrooms? Good fucking luck with that.” Max snorted, a semblance of a laugh.

  
  


David noticed Max had a little bundle in his arms. Some paper and envelopes, and a pen in his hand. “Whaddya got there?”

  
  


“Uh— letter writing stuff. Gwen gave them to me.” He watched Max nervously scuff the ground with his foot and avoid eye contact. “I’m gonna try writing shit down before talking about it. It’s not her  _ worst  _ idea.”

  
  


“It’s worth trying. Anywho, you should spend the day with your friends,” David pointed over to his tent, where all of the campers were still sleeping. “Get back to your regular routine, it will be good for you.”

  
  


“...What if I freak out again?”

  
  


“Gwen and I will be here to help. We’re never far away, buddy.”

  
  


“Jesus, how can I forget? You won’t ever leave me the hell alone!”

  
  


David knelt down on one knee in front of Max, who was still looking anywhere but at him. “Yep, you’re stuck with me. Don’t you forget it.”

  
  


Max seemed to be chewing the inside of his cheek anxiously as he looked to the side and then silently held his arms out to David.  _ Aw, Max.  _ David was more than happy to oblige his request, but the hug only lasted a second before it was done. “You tell  _ anyone— _ “

  
  


“And no one will ever find my body. I know.”

  
  


He watched Max run off back to his tent before his friends woke up and noticed he was gone and lingered for a little longer. He still had a third of summer left to figure out what the  _ hell  _ he was going to do about Max, but until then, he had to do his best to make this a place where Max and all of his friends could be happy. 

  
  


First things first, he was going to go wake Gwen up. If he was going to succeed, it was going to be with his better half. 


End file.
